St Mellons

St Mellons Welsh: Llaneirwg
Monmouthshire
St Mellons parish church
Location
Grid reference:	ST235815
Data
Population:	2,279
Post town:	Cardiff
Postcode:	CF3
Dialling code:	029
Local Government
Council:	Cardiff
Parliamentary constituency:	Cardiff South & Penarth

St Mellons is a village and ancient parish in Monmouthshire which has become a suburb of eastern Cardiff.

The vast majority of buildings in St Mellons were built in the late 20th and early 21st Centuries; the original village of the same name is now known as "Old St Mellons", which latter contains many buildings of the 19th century. "St Mellons" today refers to the considerably larger and more modern housing estate which has been built to the south and east.

St Mellons as was began as a small commercial centre of Monmouthshire, relying heavily on rural agriculture, farming and travel. Owners of coach houses or coaching inns would cater for travellers using the Newport Road, the old Roman Road between Cardiff and London.

Name

The name St Mellons is believed to be derived from the 6th century Saint Melaine who became Bishop of Rennes in Brittany, rather than the more legendary 4th-century Mellonius, Bishop of Rouen. One of these Bishops is known to have been born and raised in the area where the estate now exists, though stories of the two have become hopelessly confused in many biographies over the years leaving historians unsure as to which is which.

The Welsh name is Llaneirwg: "Eurwg's church", after a mythical King of Gwent. Eurwg is said to have lived on the hill at St Mellons during the Romano-British era, he and his people were converted to Christianity and baptised in the nearby Rhymney River. Eurwg's church was erected near the site of the former church of 1360.

Facilities

The area is home to two major retail complexes. The largest features a Tesco petrol station and superstore, which hit the headlines in January 2010 when it banned customers from shopping in their nightwear, clearly a prevalent local habit, The Willows pub and a parade of small retail units with local shops. Plans for a massive overhaul of the site were approved in March 2009 to include demolition of an existing large store and six smaller units, to be replaced by a vast new store, with modifications to a number of nearby footpaths, roads and junctions

Another complex a mile away has other local shops.

Further to the east, near the A48(M) junction, there is the three-star St Mellons Hotel and Country Club, the St Mellons Golf Club, The Heron Marsh public house, a garden centre and furniture showroom.

Business Park

St Mellons Business Park

The St Mellons Business Park is a collection of large scale business parks located on low-lying land east of St Mellons considered to be Cardiff's green belt. It has a vast number of factories and office units. A number of roads in and around the business parks are named after computer programming languages: Pascal, Cobol and Fortran.

Coastal Defences

Much of the newer estates were built on the Wentloog Levels, areas of low-lying farmland which regularly became flooded until they were reclaimed from the sea during Roman times. A system of drainage reens and sluice gates together with a seawall which runs from the River Usk in the east to the Rhymney River in the west protect the area from the risk of coastal flooding as the land is still only a few feet above sea level.

Wildlife

Despite large scale development, a lot of wildlife can still be seen especially to the eastern fringe: foxes, rabbits, grey squirrels, buzzards, herons, moorhens, swans, mallards, green woodpeckers and many other birds are a common sight.

Outside links

• A Community website for New St Mellons
• Old St Mellons community council
• www.geograph.co.uk : photos of St Mellons and surrounding area